Monday, April 6, 2009

I was asked in the comments to my earlier thread to describe the player characters in the Dwimmermount campaign. At present, there are five PCs. They are:

Brother Candor (Cleric 3)Str 13 Dex 9 Con 15 Int 12 Wis 15 Cha 16

As you can see from his rather impressive ability scores, Brother Candor was blessed by Lady Luck from birth. He's the de facto leader of the party of adventurers. He's the adopted son of an itinerant cleric of Tyche, who followed in his father's footsteps after he died. Candor recently formally joined the hierarchy of the Lady's church. His only magic item are a pair of boots of levitation.

Dordagdonar claims not to have a lot of use for "ephemerals," as he calls mortal races, but he spends all his time with them. He's implied that he's older and more knowledgeable than he appears, but no one else believes him. They keep him around because he's a good shot with a bow, but his use of magic is much less certain (he cast sleep on Pike, while he was engaged in combat). His magic items consist of chainmail +1 and a wand of paralyzation.

Pike (Fighting Man 2)Str 16 Dex 9 Con 14 Int 7 Wis 9 Cha 10

Pike was once a grave digger and took up adventuring as a way to make more money than he earned in his former profession. He still carries the shovel he used in those days. Semi-literate with a weakness for gambling, Pike is nevertheless no fool. He distrusts Dordagdonar and is wary of any plans that involve his entering a room alone without a visible means of escape. His magic items consist of a longsword +1 and a hand axe +1.

Iriadessa (Magic-User 2)Str 8 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 10 Cha 8

Iriadessa is a 12 year-old girl who claims she's actually 15. She joined the party so that she could escape the wizard to whom her parents had sold her in exchange for a small amount of gold. Rather than wait to see what the wizard had in store for her, she swiped his spellbook and fled, teaching herself the rudiments of magic. She's cowardly and wary of anything remotely dangerous, which makes her decision to explore Dwimmermount somewhat nonsensical but her command of sleep and charm person spells means she's occasionally proven her worth. She currently possesses no magic items.

Vladimir (Dwarven Warrior 1)Str 13 Dex 11 Con 14 Int 8 Wis 9 Cha 9

Dour and greedy, as you'd expect from a dwarf, Vladimir remains a bit of a cipher compared to his fellow party members. He spends most of his free time -- and all of his wealth -- carving a son for himself, in accordance with dwarven custom. He's fond of bad jokes and puns and speaks Common with a peculiar accent. He also doesn't like goblins, which is why Brakk often disappears whenever Vladimir decides to rejon the party. He currently possesses no magic items.

OK, those stats seem very similar to the types my players end up with. Do you do "roll 4 pick best 3"method as well.

Man, just looking at active characters makes me want to play right now!

By the way, I see you are reading Kane, James. Have you ever seen the Marvel Comics Soloman Kane mini-series from the late 80's (I think it was late 80's). A must if you are a fan. Check Ebay for 'em (4 issues total. I still got mine in the comic vault somewhere).

When generating the primary ability (str = fighter, dex = thief, int = mage, etc..)roll an additional 2d6 for that ability score (only); regardless of the number of dice rolled, the character only keeps the highest three individual die results.

Example: a Cleric would roll 6d6 for his Wisdom score and roll 4d6 when generating all other ability scores.

Also, depending on the character’s race he must reroll either all ‘1s’ or ‘6s’ on the individual die results when generating specific ability scores. This reflects the unique aptitudes of the individual species.

Newly generated characters are usually young adults; hence, there is no need to modify these generated scores. Example: If generating a Halfling reroll all ‘6s’ when generating the strength score, and reroll all ‘1s’ when generating the wisdom score. If generating a halfling thief’s strength score and you obtain these die results: ‘3’,‘6’,‘4’,and ‘1’,we must reroll the ‘6’. If this reroll result is ‘1’, the character’s strength score would be the sum of the three highest dice; i.e., 8 = 3 + 1 + 4.

After we have generated our six ability scores we need to understand what these scores or numbers mean. Each ability is rated on an ordinal scale from three to eighteen, with scores of 10 or 11 representing average aptitude or ability for an untrained human adult.

*Eighteen is the highest possible ability score for a newly generated character, this implies amazing aptitude. Players should not panic if their initial scores are not as high as desired, these scores will increase with experience

It's been great fun to follow your lucky players and their characters through the depths of Dwimmermount, and I've enjoyed the little tidbits about the characters which shine through your play reports.

Seeing your PCs in their fully statted glory just makes me want to run OD&D.

Here's hoping for many, many more sessions of old school dungeoneering goodness.

DOES PIKE EVER USE THE SHOVAL FOR COMBAT?!?? I SEE HE HAS THE MAGIC SWORD BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE COOL OF HE USED THE SHOVAL TO!! I MIHGT STEAL THAT IDEA FOR MY CAMPAIN......... (WOULD YOU SUE ME? I USE WITH RESPECT AND WILL REFUSE IF YOU DO NOT APROVE.

Could you shed some light on character creation in your campaign? I'm mainly curious about how attributes are generated (e.g., 3d6 in order)? Can the players reject 'hopeless characters'?

All these characters were generated with 3D6 in order by myself, but they were among about a dozen or more PCs I created all at once. The players picked the ones they wanted and I've used the leftovers for NPCs like hirelings.

Have you ever seen the Marvel Comics Soloman Kane mini-series from the late 80's (I think it was late 80's). A must if you are a fan. Check Ebay for 'em (4 issues total. I still got mine in the comic vault somewhere).

Marvel did a six-issue mini-series in the mid-80's called The Sword of Solomon Kane. It was decent enough, although I personally think the better Marvel Kane stories came earlier, mainly in the early Savage Sword of Conan back-up strips, as well as the excellent two-part adaptation of 'Red Shadows' that appeared in Marvel Premiere with Howard Chaykin doing the art. The two 'Kane vs Dracula' stories that Marvel did are also pretty well done.

when I read that Kane mini-series I hadn't even heard of him, even though I was a big reader of Conan books. Never saw those earlier strips either (even as a kid, those Conan comics were rare and expensive). I loved the 80's comics - he was so...damn...puritanical...

At a So Cal Ren Faire in the 90's, my stage show included a little interaction with the dudes playing puritans. I so wanted to put together a puritan outfit, but with sword and musket. Elizabethan Kane. The puritan guys acted so wussy, I just thought they needed a total badass in the group.

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